Exercise Can Make You Happier Than Money

It’s official: working out can make you happier than money. That is, under the right circumstances, of course. And for those who are not into exercising, there’s nothing to worry about. We have more good news if you scroll down.

Exercise can make you as happy as a $25,000 income increase.

In this study, researchers from Yale and Oxford asked about 1.2 million Americans what their physical routine was, while on the other hand gathering data about their background (gender, income, marital status, medical history, etc.) This helped them to find a direct correlation between happiness and physical activity.

It turns out that people who exercised rated their mental health 43% higher than those who didn’t and had similar backgrounds. Researchers found out that, in fact, physical activity led the subjects to evaluate their mental health in a similar way as people who earned $25,000 more than them.

More exercise is not always better.

That being said, this doesn’t necessarily mean that you should workout non-stop for hours. From this particular study, researchers concluded that exercising too much can be just as counterproductive for your mental health as not exercising at all. They saw the best results from people who were physically active for between 30 and 60 minutes, 5 times per week.

Some sports make you happier than others.

They also found that some sports are more effective at making people happy than others. Typically, this includes group sports, since they allow team members to be social, as this study concluded. Oddly, aerobics and cycling offer the same benefits, despite not being classified as group sports.

What the Logos of World-Famous Brands Actually Mean

Pepsi

According to Davis Bradham, the creator of Pepsi, his drink made of sugar, water, caramel, lemon oil, and nutmeg stimulated the digestion process. This is why he came up with the name Pepsi based on the world dyspepsia which is a catch-all term for all digestive disorders.

In more than 100 years of its existence, the logo has changed numerous times. Today, it’s a circle made of blue and red halves separated with a white wave. Interestingly, the company had to pay more than $1 million for this logo. According to its creators, it references the earth’s magnetic field, Pythagoras’ theorem, and the theory of the golden ratio. But the reference to the US national flag is far more obvious.

IKEA

Most of the products in this store are named with hard-to-pronounce Swedish words but the name of the company is very different. The creator of the company, Ingvar Kamprad, came up with an acronym using the first letters of his name and the name of the farm Elmtaryd in Agunnaryd where he was born. The logo is pretty simple and references the Swedish flag’s colors.

Android

According to a legend, the founder of the company, Andy Rubin, was called android because of how much he loved robots. So when he started working on his own operational system, he chose this name for it.

The Android logo was designed by Irina Blok. She said that she pictured a robot but just couldn’t come up with the right image. It’s funny that the pictures drawn on restroom doors helped her come up with an idea for what she wanted.

Starbucks

The name for the famous coffee chain was made up by the owners almost by accident. They gathered one evening and started making up words that started with "st"— they thought that these 2 letters would be a great match and they sounded cool. Then, someone found an old mining map and found the town of Starbo. The friends then remembered one of the Moby Dick characters, Starbuck. This was how the name of the iconic coffee company came to be.

But why is there a siren of the sea on the logo? This is a reference to the book. Starbuck from the novel was an assistant on the ship. The creators decided to go along with the sea theme, choosing the 2-tailed mermaid from Ancient Greek mythology as their logo.

Instagram

The founder of the app, Kevin Systrom, was interested in photography before he created Instagram. He really loved the instant photos made by Polaroid, for example. This is where the word “instant” came from. Photos can also be sent as messages or telegrams, hence the combination of instant and telegram to make Instagram.

The logo of the company, in turn, was inspired by the name: a slightly altered picture of the retro camera Polaroid OneStep. Later, it was changed to be more minimalistic but you can still see the camera in the logo.